How to Make Sales With Social Media

Social media isn’t just for reconnecting with old friends from high school or inviting others to play Candy Crush. Social media can be used to make sales and support your business’ marketing efforts.

There are many reasons why social media is a great tool to make sales, including:

Social media is action-oriented.

Social media helps make sales because, like closing a deal in the “traditional” business sense, social media is action-oriented. Every click on social media is an action, such as sharing, “liking,” clicking through to a website or completing a form.

To leverage social media to make sales, drill into specific actions. Ask fans and followers to act, whether through a click, comment or other action. Make the calls to action simple, clear and in line with the end users’ self interests, keeping in mind why they would want to buy or make a sale with you. Simply put, make it about them and how your product or service can help them.

Social media supports relationship building.

From “friending” and “following” to “liking” and commenting, social media is filled with opportunities to connect and build relationships. Building and maintaining relationships is crucial to converting customers from potential or just looking to actually making the deal and closing the sale.

Use social media to build and maintain relationships, including connecting with those you know outside of social media and making new connections through the social space. For example, with connections you initiated in person or have had for a long time, social media is a wonderful way to reconnect and another opportunity to touch base.

Social media allows two-way communication.

Social media is different from traditional advertising because it allows the consumer or customer to “talk back.” Before social media, advertisements were really limited to one-way communication—speaking to or at the customer, without them being able to talk back, ask questions, engage, etc. The two-way communication component of social media allows businesses to put it to work for them in building relationships and making sales.

Using the back-and-forth communication element of social media can help drive sales. This is because you can engage customers directly to find out what they want, and then you can modify and customize your offering or message to their specific requests or needs.

There are many different channels, networks and content publishing opportunities for social media in Austin.

Social media isn’t just one medium or network. In fact, it’s not just Facebook or Twitter. There are many different channels, networks and content publishing opportunities available for businesses.

To make the most of social media for your company, choose the places (e.g., channels or networks) that make the most sense for your product or service, and that are the places where your existing and potential customers are. For example, if you none of your customers use Facebook, it probably wouldn’t make sense to make Facebook your main social media channel.

Consider other channels and networks like Twitter, LinkedIn or even your own company blog. There is no silver bullet or “one size fits all” solution that works for every company. Take time to do research and figure out what channels are best for your business.